


Her First Mother's Day

by brothergrimace1



Category: Daria (Cartoon), Legion of Super-Heroes (Comics)
Genre: Happy Ending, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 07:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11732793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brothergrimace1/pseuds/brothergrimace1
Summary: A holiday-themed 'Legion of Lawndale Heroes' 'Mini', where Daria gives Helen a very dear and precious gift.





	Her First Mother's Day

 

“Daria. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Side-effect of not always wearing the old boots, anymore. I see you got Quinn’s present.”

Helen actually blushed as she descended the stairwell and went into the living room; Daria was perched upon the couch. “She brought her friend Danni over this morning. I said that I wasn’t sure-”

“You look great, Mom. I’ll need to get you a new baseball bat, for when you go into the office.”

Daria was silent for a moment as her gaze mover across her mother’s face. “Danni does nice work. Eric never was able to stop staring at you. Maybe now, he’ll fall down a stairwell or an elevator shaft as he’s watching you walk past.”

The Legionnaire recalled what she had learned about Danni Todds’ power of organic manipulation, and how her ability made her a natural at not just healing, but the entire gamut of medical procedures – from the mundane to the macabre, if necessary. She was capable of such profound techniques as cloning entirely new, healthy bodies for the terminally ill or persons with massive physical damage, and then transplanting their actual brains into the new body, to simple things as clearing up the skin damage from acne, chicken pox or other causes – to the more _cosmetic_  changes such as a profound course of liposuction, along with body alterations to re-shape the person’s body accordingly, to expansion of that one special part of the male anatomy (both in _length_  and  _girth_ , the latter of which only the more enlightened males ever considered, she had once confided to both Daria and an ever-cackling Jane).

Helen smiled – and not just at Daria’s words. _She never did like him – and she’s right. With the – body work – Danni did, they’ll all be staring at the office - perhaps even Jim Vitale himself._

_Of course, knowing the way he’s connected – he’ll probably know at once what happened. He does have, well, some interesting clients – and things have only started to make sense once Daria and her friends started up the Legion. He won’t make a fuss either – I wondered why he didn’t even try to back Eric when he made his play to get the firm involved with the Legion…_

“Does Dad know yet?”

“He’s out trying to find some flowers – he forgot again.” The smile on Helen’s face grew wider; she allowed Danni to go a bit further with her age-manipulation, and now she looked and felt as if she were in her early thirties. _Jake may be a bit taken aback – for about thirty seconds, until I put him in a lip-lock._  “I don’t think he’ll complain much.”

“No, I don’t think he will.” Daria’s childhood memories of falling asleep to the sounds of ecstatic coupling – or those sounds as they flowed through the front door of the Morgendorffer’s Highland home, as she sat on the stoop after school and waited for them to stop, many, _many_  times – had never really dimmed.

“I’m glad you came by today, Daria.”

“Well, I had thought over what to get you for Mother’s Day. I kept running into walls, until I talked with Jane, and she reminded me of something.”

Helen was mildly surprised by Daria motioning for her to sit beside her on the couch.

“Remember when I told you about the Legion’s trip to the military school out in Indiana?”

“Quinn’s told me about it, too – and your new friend Julia? I knew both of her mothers back in school; Paige was a real rebel, until she met Forbes…” Helen went into a momentary reverie – until she jerked back into the present by the knowledge that her oldest daughter was a _telepath_.

“Daria – what have I told you about not peeking into my mind, and pushing back any thoughts that may accidentally jump out at you?”

“That’s why I always wear _this_ when I come over.”

They both looked at the very nice watch-like device on Daria’s left wrist.

“That really does better for you than the blood-pressure monitor?”

“It has one – and it also puts off a tone that calms me down if my blood pressure goes too high.”

Daria looked up from her Mark 30 _Psychon-class_  augmenter. “While we were there, I showed Jane some of my memories. I didn’t read her mind, Mom – I let her into mine.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah.” Daria paused slightly. “I… I wanted to let you see something - if you want to. If you’ll let me show you.”

Helen saw the slight waver in her daughter’s eyes, and knowing her as she did, knew the difference between emotions; Daria was afraid that she wouldn’t accept.

“Yes, Daria. Show me.”

Daria reached out to grasp Helen’s wrist. “I thought that when people with psychic powers did mind-stuff, they always held someone’s hand.”

“That’s movie and TV stuff. I have a couple of friends from that school; they taught me that very few people do that. It’s much easier to connect mentally while you’re touching someone – but it’s considered rude to touch their face or taking their hand. For telepaths, doing that is the same as grabbing someone’s bottom or boobs – you don’t do that unless you really know them.”

“So, you hold their wrist?”

“Either their wrist or their shoulder. If you’re trying to be controlling instead of rude, you grab them by the back of the neck if they’re a guy, or by the upper part of their arm if it’s a girl – you know, the way they do it in the movies. It’s supposed to be especially demeaning, and that makes it easy to get into their heads.”

Helen removed her daughter’s hand from her wrist, and took it in her own. “You’re my daughter.”

She recognized the shadow of a smile that went across her child’s face. “Okay.”

 

*****

 

_Helen found herself looking up at the strangest thing, a blob of pale, off-yellow that made squeaking noises as it wiggled and bounced in the air a couple of feet in front of her, held by something that looked like a pale pink claw._

_She squinted and tried to focus; with a start, she realized that she was looking up at her mother-in-law, Ruth Morgendorffer – and that horrid squeeze-toy that she had brought as a gift for…_

_Oh. My. God. I’m in Daria’s memories. This is when she was a baby, it has to be – this is from the first time that Ruth came down to Highland to visit, a few months after Daria was born!_

_Helen could feel the slight annoyance – God, even this young, she had that attitude – at the blurry shape that occasionally moved in close enough to resolve into a lined face, a mass of gray, shaggy hair crowned with a bun. It was unfashionable then, Ruth – and it hasn’t gotten any better since then. _

_She let herself smile as she felt the infant Daria’s face shift slightly; her eyes became tiny slits, and her mouth a petite line that registered no further emotion. Some things never change._

_“Ruth – there’s a telephone call for you.”_

_Helen was surprised at the sound of her own voice – and that surprise grew as she saw her younger self resolve into view; she felt gentle yet sure hands lift her, blanket and all, from the crib she was in, and the warmth of her own breast as her younger self held her close, stroking her soft, auburn locks back as she gently rocked back and forth._

_She could feel the annoyance instantly flow away, to be replaced by several emotions; a sense of instant security and peace, a connection that made her feel safe, and a wave of pure, undiluted affection, of love that made Helen shudder with a flood of emotion from deep within herself…_

__

_As she felt herself swaddled within the cocoon of emotion that baby Daria was experiencing at that moment, Helen experienced once more proof of just how intelligent her oldest child had always been; in that tiny mind, as she snuggled close, she could feel rather than hear a single word in Daria’s mind, a word that the child must have constantly heard, even in those first few months of her life, and which to her meant everything good and warm and safe…_

_Mommy …_

 

*****

 

Helen’s eyed dripped with tears as she found herself once again on the couch; she found that the emotion that welled up within her made it difficult to speak.

“You were only about seven or eight months old,” she managed to whisper. “That was – it was…”

“It was your first Mother’s Day.” Daria’s voice was as soft as her mother’s. “I just thought – I don’t say everything I should, and I figured that if I could let Jane in-”

Helen pulled Daria close to her; she held her close, and kissed the top of her head before she began to stroke her hair as she did when she was a baby.

“My baby,” she whispered, as Daria surrendered to her embrace and pressed close to her mother. “I love you, Daria.”

 

 

**END**

 

15 May 2017


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